Nico switched to the wrong engine mode - Hamilton
Three-time world champion Lewis Hamilton left Barcelona disheartened after colliding spectacularly with his team-mate Nico Rosberg. The Englishman insists there was nothing wrong about his move and has disappointment for his team.
The famously bad relationship between the Mercedes duo has taken another horrible turn in Barcelona. The duo dominated the qualifying for the Spanish GP as Hamilton claimed pole position and Rosberg grabbed the second place. Both took great starts, but the German grabbed the leading position by slipstreaming him down the start-finish line.
Rosberg, then, being in the wrong engine mode lost speed through turn 3 which enabled Hamilton to close the gap and challenge him. Rosberg closed the inside door where Lewis tried to attack him.
Hamilton went onto the grass and lost control over his car and spun into the back of Rosberg's car.
The question was why Rosberg lost his speed in that dramatic way. Lewis claimed that Nico simply forgot about selecting the right engine mode for the race.
"Before the race we have all these procedures we have to go through. When we stop on the grid, there's only one mode we go to - which is the race mode. Nico was in that same mode for the all formation lap, so I assume he forgot to change it on the grid."
"But once you're in the launch mode, we're both in the same mode. When we got to Turn 3, he disengaged the launch mode, as I did, but I went to race mode and he went to another one."
Lewis felt comfortable about his move as he saw a wide enough line to go for the attack.
"Where he positioned the car was a car width to the right of the racing line. At the speed I was catching him, I had to decide whether to go left - which was a small gap - or right. Then obviously that gap diminished pretty quickly."
The 31-year-old is sorry for the team as Mercedes lost a potential easy one-two. He wants to make sure that the incident won't repeat itself in the future.
"The feeling I have is just disappointment for the team. What's important is we just go to the next race and try to make sure it doesn't happen again."
